LIVING 55 PLUS
ART TOWN
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Why we love
BASEBALL New STATE FAIR foods Essay by
RENEE BERG Noelle Lawton AUGUST 2018
The Free Press MEDIA
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FEATURE S AUGUST 2018 Volume 13, Issue 8
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Put me in, coach! Come summer, most southern Minnesotans at some point will find themselves at a ball game. But why?
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Art Town
The Reinventor
Mankato has become a mecca for public art. From sculptures to murals, the city’s reputation as a welcoming place for art and artists is strong.
Essayist Renee Berg writes about being an impulsive, serial reinventor.
ABOUT THE COVER Noelle Lawton is the local impresario of public art. She was photographed by Pat Christman.
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DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor 8 Faces & Places 12 This Day in History 14 Beyond the Margin Take us out to the ball game
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16 Familiar Faces Amanda Wirig 30 Day Trip Destinations Mill City Museum 32 Then & Now New Ulm’s Kiesling House 36 Living 55 Plus 53 Food, Drink & Dine
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54 Food State Fair food 56 Happy Hour Summer cocktails 57 Beer Hazy hops 58 That’s Life Let’s get physical 60 Garden Chat The weeds are winning
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62 Your Style Tennis style. Love love love. 64 Night Moves Gary Allen 67 Coming Attractions 68 From This Valley Rhymin’ Rex
Coming in September Let’s DANCE!
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 5
FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR By Robb Murray AUGUST 2018 • VOLUME 13, ISSUE 8 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Robb Murray EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Dyslin Ann Rosenquist Fee Bert Mattson Bryce O. Stenzel Diana Rojo-Garcia James Figy Jean Lundquist Leigh Pomeroy Leticia Gonzales Nell Musolf Pete Steiner
PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Jackson Forderer PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Joan Streit SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Marianne Carlson Theresa Haefner ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Sue Hammar DESIGNERS Christina Sankey CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR
Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray at 344-6386, or e-mail rmurray@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.
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Baseball: America’s game
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y dad was a heckuva ball player. I never actually saw him play, but there are plenty of photographs in old yearbooks and basement storage boxes to tell me that, above all sports, baseball was his game. (Most of us thought he played hockey, too, so imagine our horror when, a few months after his death, it was revealed that he was on the high school basketball team! Boy, the things you can learn about a guy by paging through his yearbook! But I digress.) He loved baseball. Used to ride his bike over to Lexington Park to watch the original version of the St. Paul Saints, or take the trolley across town to watch the Minneapolis Millers. (He was among the few to see Willie Mays in a Millers uniform: The “Say Hey Kid” was only there for two months in the summer of 1951 before getting called up to the big leagues by the New York Giants.) My mom used to tell a story about going to watch my dad’s baseball practices. At the end of practice, his dog Penny — who in a slice of perfect Americana followed her master several blocks from their St. Paul home to the practice field — would wait patiently for Bob to finish practice. Then, when it was time to go home, Penny would sift through the pile of the players’ gloves to find my dad’s, then proudly follow my dad home, his glove dangling from her black muzzle like a trophy. When I was a kid playing little league ball, my dad was always the coach. And he was a good coach. He never exploded in rage at an umpire’s bad call or a pitcher who couldn’t — no matter how many backyard fastballs he caught for
him — get the ball over the plate. He was a kind man and an even kinder coach. And his laid-back, easy going vibe was everything that is right about baseball. Every baseball game I watch today — whether it’s the Twins, Moon Dogs or one of my son’s games years ago — is done so through the filter of how my dad approached the game. And I’ll always be grateful for that. This month in Mankato Magazine, we go a on lazy quest. Our goal: Attend a few ball games and ask people what it is about our national pastime that people find so alluring. We ventured to New Ulm for a town team game, to a Mankato Legion ball game, and finally, a Moon Dogs game. It was great fun gathering the story. I hope you enjoy reading it. Also in this month’s issue, we give Mankato its due when it comes to public art. It seems no other city in southern Minnesota is actively trying to make itself more attractive through art the way Mankato is. Sculptures, murals, yarn explosions on Front Street — it’s all part of the collage of efforts to beautify the community and elevate the importance of art, artists, and of taking care of the soul. Finally, I want to bring your attention to an essay written by a friend of mine. Renee Berg attended Minnesota State University at the same time as I did. Her essay talks about her need to keep reinventing herself, and how that need has impacted her family. It’s a great read that I know you’ll love.
Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@ mankatofreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freepressRobb.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 7
FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Kato Color Fun Run
1. Runners cross the starting line. 2. (Left to right) Brielle Meyer, Payton Hardesty, and Katie Hoeper pose for a photo after crossing the finish line. 3. (Left to right) Richard, Brooklyn and Paula Garvey pose for a photo before the run begins. 4. Participants create an “orange explosion” at the end of the run. 5. Lynn Javens goes through the color station. 6. The color splash station workers, covered in powder, pose for a photo. 7. Todd Javens was covered in multiple colors after the run. 8. Owen Culbertson gets splashed with color at the first color station. 9. Sarah Bohrer, one of the leaders of the event, gets in on the fun at the color station.
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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Meet the Lancers! 40th Edition 1
1. The Mankato Area 77 Lancers begin marching down H offman road as they introduce the 40th edition of the band. 2. The Lancers, in formation, march down Hoffman road. 3. Friends and family waved at the band. 4. The drumline performed in front of a great crowd at East High School. 5. Both band and color guard members perform in synch. 6. Before the performance, the Lancers hosted a potluck inside the East High School cafeteria.
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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Songs on the Lawn
1. (Left to right) Erin Swanson, Sophia Vanderlee, and Jason Meyers served at the Pub 500 vendor booth. 2. Max Graham of “Kind Country” performed on the mandolin. 3. “Kind Country” performed for the crowd. 4. Kids played and danced in front of the stage. 5. (Left to Right) Vicky Lauruhm, Mona Ceniceros and Judy Ahlstrom danced to the tunes in front of the stage. 6. Songs On the Lawn is held Thursdays in June at the Civic Center Plaza.
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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
United Way Executive Leadership & Business Awards Luncheon
1. Awards, including a basketball signed by the players of the Timberwolves basketball team. 2. Ethan Casson, CEO of Minnesota Timberwolves & Lynx, was the keynote speaker for the Top Executive Leadership Luncheon. 3. Julie Hawker, winner of the basketball signed by the Timberwolves. 4. Shane Van Engen giving a speech. 5. A great crowd gathered for the Top Executive Leadership Luncheon, hosted by Courtyard by Marriott. 6. Bard Kaus, CEO of United Way Mankato, announcing the awards. 7. Representatives of Coughlan Companies posing with their award.
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THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist
PRINTING
REFRESHING
COLOR EVERY DAY
Big Red causes some red faces Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1976 The Mankato Fire Department was showing off it’s new fire truck, named “Big Red,” for Mankato Free Press photographer Bill Altnow, when they made a red-faced discovery. The truck ran out of gas in front of the Law Enforcement Center on Front Street, blocking traffic. It took an hour to get fuel into the truck, and get it restarted. The big rig, at a cost of $113,569, had not yet fought its first fire. Fire Chief Ray Erlandson said the incident caused no harm, except to “our pride.” Lake Crystal voters OK Sunday drink Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1976 Only 340 voters of 1,200 registered to vote in Lake Crystal, made a decision to allow the City Council to consider an ordinance change allowing people to purchase on-sale alcohol on Sundays. With only two liquor licenses in Lake Crystal, both The Answer Bar and the American Legion are expected to apply for a Sunday license when it becomes available. However, most Sunday liquor licenses in the state require the sale of food, as well. That would mean only The Answer would be eligible, as the American Legion does not serve food. Seven-year-olds admit North Mankato vandalism Wednesday, Aug. 3, 1966 Two little girls were apprehended by police for allegedly ransacking the educational building at the Belgrade United Methodist Church last Sunday afternoon or evening. According to the police report: crayons and markers were used on walls, floors and doors; pop bottles were smashed on the floors; Sunday School books were scattered throughout the building; furniture in the fireside room was tipped over; crayons by the hundreds were scattered across floors, and glass in some doors was broken. In the kitchen, they dumped flour, sugar, salt, pepper and spices on the floor. The two seven-year-old girls were released to their parents, who were instructed to take disciplinary action. 62 More Polio Cases in State Wednesday, Aug. 7, 1946 Sixty-two more cases of infantile paralysis in Minnesota were reported to the State today, bringing the total for the year to 768. An epidemic was declared in Minneapolis, and board control measures were instituted, including the voluntary quarantine of children under 15. The Madelia Board of Health followed suit, placing a ban on movie attendance for anyone under 15, cancelling Sunday School, and urging the voluntary cancellation of large group gatherings. No cases have yet been reported in Madelia.
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BEYOND THE MARGIN By Joe Spear
Take us out to the ball game
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here’s a white guy who woofs at the MoonDogs game when the team makes a big play. It’s a beautiful thing.
It’s an authentic dog woof. If you weren’t looking at him, you’d think it was a Labrador or St. Bernard maybe. And he smiles at the older lady sitting behind him — she seems like she’s in her 80s maybe — and the young boy sitting next to him. He grabs a handful of popcorn and takes a slug of his beer. Baseball is our game in America. An American-made game. We thought for years it was Abner Doubleday, of Cooperstown, New York, who invented the game. Turns out that was not true. History.com (The History channel) says the Doubleday story was not even close. Instead, the American style baseball we know today was established by the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. One of the players, Alexander Joy Cartwright, a volunteer firefighter and bank clerk, codified many of the current rules including the three strikes and you’re out rule. The Knickerbockers played their first game against a cricket team in 1846, and the new American pastime was born. And it is the one thing that has unified the Republic, and maybe kept us together through the Civil War, the World Wars and Vietnam. We should appreciate it in these times when we need baseball once again. We need it. Badly. Baseball is an objective game. You hit the ball, you throw the ball and you catch the ball. An out is and out. A hit is a hit. A home run is a home run, and a grand slam is wondrous. We can argue about umpires, but we can’t argue about the rules of the game. Baseball is not partisan. And baseball players usually don’t talk politics. That’s good. It saves us. We need more baseball in these times. We need to go to the games wherever we can find them. Political experts say our Republic should have ended in 1976, our 200th anniversary, because that is the average lifespan of democracies. We’re 40 plus years past our deadline. I say it’s because of baseball, though John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have helped. The Northwoods League plays a particularly important role in helping us to “keep calm and carry on.” The woodbat league keeps true to the American tradition. Wood bats are made in Kentucky at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, where they have been making bats since 1884. In the Northwoods League, college kids from all over
the country travel to different places they’ve never been before. Guys from Texas and California travel to Eau Claire, Willmar and Thunder Bay. We are introduced to players from UCLA, Xavier University, New Mexico State, Indiana State and Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. They have names like Guerrero, Ramirez, Morales and Teijeiro. Good thing we let them cross the Minnesota border without problems. Because we are fans of these young men. And they are gallant, playing about 70 games in 75 days, away from home, because they love baseball. They stay with local families. They don’t make money playing baseball, so they eat the unsold brats at the ballpark at the end of the game. It’s all good. And the people of Mankato have given them a gift: $4 million in renovations to their stadium named after a newspaper editor. Franklin Rogers Park now has artificial turf that beats the rain. It has the Ledger Lounge, the Dog Pound, and the Dugout Box Club, where you get waitress service. The new dugouts are located where the players can be just feet away from the fans waiting in line to buy a MoonDog hotdog (extra large). There are two scoreboards that can handle extra innings. There’s a 20 by 50 foot video scoreboard that can show the little leaguers trying to mimic the emoji facial expressions of a handsome young black man. Franklin Rogers helped establish this park in 1961 and was committed to the idea of baseball as a community asset. He wrote a popular column as Free Press sports editor called “From the Sidelines,” and was one of the “best known individuals in southern Minnesota sports circles,” according to a 1937 profile. He later became editor of The Free Press and vice president. It’s a good night at the park and the MoonDogs are rallying from a couple of runs down. The 80-plus year old woman has her MooDogs hat over her eyes covering black, horn-rimmed glasses, wearing the top of the line Under Armor gear including shoes with orange soles. Every once in a while she pulls out caramels from her handbag and hands them to the kids and the white guy. And when the MoonDogs take the lead, she lets out a woof. Beautiful.
Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear. MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 15
Familiar Faces
RETRO CHICK Amanda Wirig’s work is close to her WORK
I Photo by Jackson Forderer
Name:
Amanda Wirig Age: 38 City of residence: Mankato Education: BFA in Art and BA in Music, MSU; Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership, MSU Job title: Marketing and Program Coordinator at Twin Rivers Council for the Arts Family: Parents (Dave and Karen Wirig) live in Madison Lake; brother (Mike Wirig) lives in Mankato
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f you’ve visited the Emy Frentz Arts Guild on South Second Street the past decade or so, you may have seen artist Amanda Wirig about. She has had a studio space there since 2009, creating her unique retro Pop Art pieces and putting that BFA in Art from Minnesota State University to good use. This year, however, Wirig has been at the Twin Rivers Council for the Arts headquarters in a more official capacity, as the new marketing and program coordinator. Wirig said in addition to being a studio holder there, she used to run the box office years ago, so she knew how great Noelle Lawton (executive director) and Kathy Kerekes (office manager) were to work with. “I absolutely love my job. I’m always learning something new and meeting more people in the arts community, and I’m definitely never bored,” she said. Mankato Magazine: For those who may not know, tell us a little about the kind of art you do. What’s your medium? What inspires your work? Amanda Wirig: I’m a painter and mixed media artist who works mainly in a retro Pop Art style. My work is inspired by mid-century art and design, pop culture and advertisements. I also incorporate a lot of music references and dark humor into my work, so music and comedy are huge influences for me. Much of my work addresses socio-political issues and feminism, but uses humor to start conversations and make the work more accessible to a wider audience. MM: Why is an organization like Twin Rivers so important in our area? AW: Twin Rivers is the connector in the arts sector in our community. We’re the only arts organization chosen by the cities of Mankato and North Mankato to be their arts commission for public art, and we’re connecting artists of all disciplines together through our Movers + Shakers group. Our programming is growing tremendously, as is our affiliate base, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure the artists in the Greater Mankato area are able to succeed. MM: So much praise is heaped upon the Twin Cities for its arts and culture. How do you think Mankato compares? AW: The arts and culture scene in Mankato has grown by leaps and bounds over the last several years. I lived in an artist loft in St. Paul for a couple of years, and I see Mankato starting to offer some of the same opportunities
that were available to me in the Cities. There are so many artists here working in so many disciplines, and fantastic art is everywhere. I’m so pleased to see how things have grown here. MM: You’re also a musician, right? What kind of music do you play, and where can people see you perform? AW: I mainly play guitar and ukulele, and I love to play Indie and Alternative music: the Replacements, the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, etc. I’ve just started collaborating with David Gadberry and Katelyn Klug and have a couple of other things in the works. We’re hoping to be performing around Mankato soon. MM: You’re a huge Beatles fan. A) Who is/was the best Beatle? B) What is your favorite Beatles album? C) Why? AW: A) Paul McCartney. He’s been the love of my life since I was 16. B) It’s a tie between “Rubber Soul” and “Abbey Road.” C) “Rubber Soul” is the album where the Beatles really matured in terms of their songwriting and experimentation in the studio. “Abbey Road” has that AMAZING medley on Side 2 that I never get tired of listening to.
MM: What are your interests outside of work? AW: I love reading, dancing, watching films, going to see live music, collecting vinyl and traveling. MM: Is there something people would be surprised to learn about you? AW : I ’ v e been trying to learn French for the past few months. I’m a huge Julia Child fan, and I want to be able to pronounce what I’m trying to cook.
Amanda Wirig self portrait MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 17
The New Ulm Brewers bat against the Gibbon Reds at Johnson Park in New Ulm.
Understanding our love affair with
BASEBALL “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again.” — James Earl Jones in “Field of Dreams Story by Robb Murray | Photos by Jackson Forderer 18 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
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n a warm July night, a 30-something man with a 5-O’clock shadow and a mouth full of sunflower seeds swaggers to the batter’s box. Tugging up his left sleeve a tad, he looks to the pitcher’s mound where a clean-uniformed hurler stands ready to throw a baseball 85 mph in his direction. It’s the bottom of the third at New Ulm’s Johnson Field. The town team, the New Ulm Brewers, are taking on the Gibbon Reds. A smattering of fans, maybe a hundred or so, cradling Cokes and munching peanuts, watches on. The first pitch zooms in through the muggy New Ulm air and the batter watches it sail past his midsection, the Rawlings ball smacking the catcher’s mitt with a THWAP! Now that he’s seen a strike, he’s ready. Here’s comes pitch No. 2. The ball leaves the pitcher’s hands and, a split second later, the batter steps into it. The bat comes around, hips and cleats pivot, and in a instance of perfect physics, a Louisville Slugger and a stitched Rawlings meet directly over the plate. The Slugger wins and the ball launches … right back at the pitcher. With cat-like quickness, he ducks and sticks his glove into the ball’s whistling path. When it looks up, the ball, miraculously, is in his glove. The crowd cheers. “Where’d that come from?!” someone in the crowd shouts. The pitcher looks at heckler, smiles, and dusts the dirt off the back of what used to be clean uniform pants. He smiles. And the crowd laughs along with him. This is town team ball. In bigger cities, it’s not a thing. But in rural parts, town team baseball is still a major part of any summer. And nowhere, perhaps, is town team baseball more important than in New Ulm. Baseball, it seems, has a magic about it. An American creation, it has evolved such that it carries a universal sense of wonder about it. All the best sports movies revolve around baseball. At its best, it’s played on gorgeous summer nights by handsome men, and watched by wide-eyed children, middle-agers who probably wish they were on the field, and old-timers who grew up playing at neighborhood parks and reading about the exploits of Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig. But it seems like, in our current social environment, the trend is toward bombastic politics and instant gratification — the opposite of baseball’s ethos. So it’s time to sit back, root for the home team, and remember why we love baseball.
NEW ULM
If you go to a New Ulm Brewers game, make sure to say hello to Leanna Fluegge. She just might be the most interesting person on or off the field. She’s the official, in-house singer of the National Anthem. She’s sung it, literally, thousands of times at Johnson Park. “One year I did it 68 times,” she said. And if she can’t be at the game? “If I’m not here,” she assures, “I’ve got a CD that I made with me singing it.” She’s been here more than 20 years. With a friendly smile, Fluegge is also the one selling Schell’s beers, root beer floats or bags of peanuts. She even gave her husband a kidney. “I guess I’m kind of multi-purpose,” she said. Her career as a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker at the baseball park began with the New Ulm youth organization. “I was the only woman on the junior baseball board before I got on this board. But it’s kind of fun, I try to whip these guys into shape. … They asked me to run and then I ended up on the board. Like I said, I’m a glutton for punishment.” It’s hard to talk New Ulm baseball without bringing up the Steinbachs. That name has become synonymous with baseball dominance here. In fact, Fluegge’s fist game was during the heyday of the Steinbach reign. “That would be like 20 years ago when the Steinbachs used to play, you know, Tim Terry and Tom. It was kind of neat, they would bat right behind each other. Up in the press box you’ll find Jim Bastian, a sports writer for the New Ulm Journal who covers the Brewers. But for Bastian, the Brewers and Johnson Park have been a part of his life, literally, for decades. He was batboy for the Brewers when he was 11 years old. He remembers that summer clearly. “If you weren’t here by 6 O’clock, he said, “you didn’t get a seat. … Back then, I think baseball meant more to people. Nowadays, you’re seeing interest at the lower levels maybe dropping off a little bit. They’ll play but they’re not really that intense.” These days, he says, crowds get bigger if the team is winning, just like any other sport. “If they win, people come,” Bastian said. “If you’re 0-9, people won’t come.” Like Fluegge, Bastian remembers the Steinbach days. But he says it wasn’t just Steinbach. “You had Terry, you had Jeff Schugel, you had Palmer — they played baseball every day. They went to
“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” — Yogi Berra
MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 19
The Mankato National team gathers their belongings in the dugout after defeating Sleepy Eye at Franklin Rogers Park. Legion world series in ‘78.” Even though Bastian saw some great baseball in the 70s, it’s hard to beat his memories as a batboy. “I remember two things: One is that I grabbed a foul ball, threw it back to the umpire and hit him in the back,” he says with a chuckle.
“There are only two seasons winter and Baseball.” — Bill Veeck
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“And the other one was, and you probably don’t want to print this, but … The umpire always asked for baseballs every half inning. A player (Bob Knight) gave me some to give to the umpire and says to me, ‘Tell him he sucks.’ So I said ‘You suck!’ and he says, ‘What!’” “When I returned to the dugout, Knight was laughing and asked me what the umpire said to me. I told him that the umpire said that he was out of the game.” Mary and Eugene Goblirsch didn’t throw any balls at umpires, but they do enjoy a good ballgame. Regulars at Johnson Park, they attend the games of several area town teams. “Tonight we’re here to watch our nephew,” they say. “Sometimes we go watch him if he’s close by. If it’s in Gibbon, we go. Went to Searles and Courtland last week. … This is him. Let’s see how he does.” Eugene says he used to play a little ball. Not anymore. “If you can’t play it, you might as well watch it,” he said. Mary says baseball has in her life the way no other sport has. “I come from a family of 11,” she
said, thinking back to the days when her family alone could have fielded a team. “Every Sunday we’d play. It’s just something that I’ve always liked.”
LEGION BALL
“Hum baby 22, get on bud!” the players in the Sleepy Eye dugout beckon. It’s No. 22 in the batter’s box, and he’s their last chance. “Come on, get into one!” “Come on bud, hit a gap somewhere, hit a gap!” “Need ya here!” The bat cracks, fans cheer, and No. 22’s footfalls rumble up the first base line. But the ball, tossed cleanly across the diamond with a slight arc by a Mankato Nationals third baseman, arrives first. The game is over. The hometown crowd cheers. nnn “Now batting for National, No. 18 Kyle Liebl,” says Joe Meidl, sitting up straight in the press box and gazing out to the field. His job in the moment here is that of “announcer,” the guy who tells you who is coming up to bat
Bob Reinhart announces a batter at the New Ulm Brewers game against the Gibbon Reds. Reinhart has been announcing games in New Ulm for 35 years. and how many runs, hits and errors the batting team had in the previous half inning. But when Meidl comes to these Mankato Legion ball games, he has another job that is much more important: Dad. “How’d I get this job?” he says, laughing, making sure he understood the question. “You get to choose between scoreboard or announcing, and the scoreboard job was already taken.” His son, Rob Meidl, is the catcher for Mankato. Soon to be a sophomore at Minnesota State University, Rob is on the college team, but because his birthday is a late one, he was still eligible for a third year of Legion ball. And getting to watch his son play another year of Legion ball was OK with Dad. “Summer ball has a more relaxed feel to it,” he said. “They’re still competing, they still want to win, they still want to play and do their best, but it’s just … more fun. More relaxed.” Meidl said he loves baseball’s unpredictability. “Any one thing can happen that can change the game for anybody.
One fluke hit can change things, and you can win a game when you weren’t supposed to win,” Meidl says. “You never know what’s going to happen. And something unique happens on every play.” He turns on the mic. “Batting for Sleepy Eye, No. 5, Kyle Domeier.” It’s fun to put in your time and volunteer. “They have outhit us, and we’re ahead,” he says, proving his point. “That’s the weird part about baseball.” nnn Laura Furst, siting a few rows into the second section of bleachers, watches intently as the pitcher winds up. When the umpire calls it a strike, she grabs her pen and carefully makes another hash mark on a piece of paper. She does the same with every pitch, keeping vigilant track of every ball thrown from the pitcher’s mound to the catcher. The kid on the mound, by the way, is Evan Furst, her son. “I keep track of my sons strikes
and balls and hits,” she says. “It helps keep me from being too nervous during the game when he’s pitching. And also when he was younger, he always wanted to know more of what his stats here. And it’s fun to look back at.” Like Rob Meidl, Evan Furst has a
“Oh, to be a center fielder, a center fielder – and nothing more” —Philip Roth
MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 21
Save Money. Bank Local. Free Checking Small Business Savings Mortgage Loans
Leanna Fluegge watches the New Ulm Brewers game from the concession stand at Johnson Park. Fluegge has run the concession stand for 20 years. late birthday that gave him a third year of Legion ball. They call them “Super Seniors.” Furst says she likes the fact that, no matter what game it is, there’s always something interesting happening. “There’s activity going on, there’s pitching, there’s hitting, there’s fielding constantly going on,” she says. “And it’s nice to get outside. You can spend some time outside, kick back and watch some sports.”
MOON DOGS
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Sitting under the overhang at a Moon Dogs game, it’s easy to behold all the $4 million has done. The city, as you may know, spent that much on upgrades to Franklin Rogers Field. They installed turf on the entire playing surface, added primo seats on top of the first base dugout, installed new seats and, just recently, added railings to the grandstand section steps. Oh, and don’t forget the fancy video scoreboard in right field. “The Frank,” as it’s called, is nicer, cleaner, peppier. The organization — formed in 1999 as the Mankato Mashers — has come a long way. Fans are loving the changes. But it’s the game itself that keeps people coming. “Actually, pro ball, I’m not real big on,” says Ken Wonch of New Richland. “I like high school and college ball over pro because they
still have to prove themselves, they still have to try, it’s not like, ‘Well I’m making $20 million so I don’t have to try.’ And these guys are trying to get to a spot where they can go and make the big money. … This is fun, especially little teams like this. It’s not hostile.” Wonch came in with friend Shelley Wykoff and her dog, Molly Malone. Wykoff, who works in the federal corrections system, said she loves coming to Moon Dogs games. “I got transferred out here in 2010 and I found this organization,” she said. “It’s fun, my dog can come, they let her eat the hot dogs, they don’t have a problem with that. Everybody loves her. The kids feed her, and it’s baseball. Mutnik comes around.” She says one of the things that separates baseball from other sports is the built in fun. There is music playing, goofy sideshow games, the mascot runs around shaking hands and hugging kids, and that beer guy — the one whose top-of-his-lungs shouts can pierce an ear drum if you get too close — is a hoot. “It’s just a fun atmosphere! And it’s a family atmosphere. I’ve always liked it,” Wykoff said. “And I like the guys in their uniforms … They don’t look too bad in their uniforms. MM
Cheers for the Mankato National team as they made the final out against Sleepy Eye in a game played at Franklin Rogers Park.
MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 23
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(Above) This bull sculpture sits just outside Pagliai’s restaurant on South Front Street. (Opposite page) Noelle Lawton, executive director of Twin Rivers Council for the Arts, poses near the flood wall mural in Mankato.
Going Public Whether it’s sculptures or murals, Mankato is a bastion of public art By Robb Murray | Photos by Pat Christman
J
ust after sunrise on Saturday, May 21, 2011, a group of city workers lugged a sculpture off of a city truck and put it onto a pedestal in downtown Mankato. And while they may not have known it then, in that moment, a revolution began. OK … Maybe “revolution” is a strong term. But understand this: The placement of that first sculpture was, shall we say, the first domino, a tipping point, the touchstone moment. After that single act, so many positive things happened in Mankato that took the city from a place where art lives to a place that lives for art. (Or at least is trying to.) First it was sculptures. Then it was signal boxes.
Then a mural gets painted in lower North Mankato. Then a guy drops a handful of pianos around town so anyone can play. Then more sculptures come. Then the flood wall gets painted. A small, scrappy art gallery becomes ground zero for a bold, grassroots art movement. A brass bull shows up in front of a pizza parlor. An eye-catching figure is installed in front of a campus-area coffee shop. All over town, it seems, public art is becoming the rule, rather than the exception. And how amazing is that? “Twenty years ago, what was around as far as public art? It was very limited,” local artist Michael Cimino says. “There was just sort of a shift. People want more. MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 25
Artist Michael Cimino helped Bellissimo Paint and Coatings carry out a public art mural project last month. … There’s something about public art that shows your city is moving, there’s a care and investment just in what we’re seeing.” Mankato is ahead of the curve here. And it wasn’t by accident.
TWIN RIVERS
Noelle Lawton, Twin Rivers’ Executive Director, moved back to the Mankato area from Chicago in 2009. She’d worked with Merely Players for a while, but ended up managing the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour after attending her husband’s work party. Tami Paulsen, one of the original promoters of the sculpture walk, was looking for someone to take it over. “She was nervous, and I was like, ‘Well, I’ll do it,’” Lawton said. “I am not a visual artist, but I’m a really organized person. So they hired me on as an independent contractor.” That job, she said, sort of morphed into a full-time position with Greater Mankato Growth, which has a business unit called City Center Partnership that encompasses CityArt. Then, when Lawton accepted the job at Twin Rivers, the management of the sculpture walk followed her. While it may seem strange now, there was a time when not everyone associated with the sculpture walk was on board with what it has become. “Initially, some thought maybe the sculptures should be enclosed for fear of vandalism,” Lawton said. “Some said it was a big waste of money.” The sculpture walk’s budget is made up of direct cash of $8,000 from Mankato and $3,500 from North Mankato, and then in-kind support from both cities on things like installation, forklift use, moving of bases,
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things like that. Despite early doubts from some, the sculpture walk — and a companion project that turns traffic signal boxes into street canvases — has done nothing but grow and flourish. Yes, there have been a few hiccups, such as vandalism and flat-out theft of sculptures. But for the most part, people have done nothing to the art but gaze at it. Actually, any questions of appropriate spending have been replaced by calls to push the artistic envelope a little. “It has been amazing to see the turnaround from people saying ‘This is a waste of time’ to saying ‘Wow, what can we do now?’” The sculptures have become a tourist draw. Lawton says that, when visitors come to town, it’s an easy and fun first stop. “One of the first things we do is say ‘You gotta see the sculpture walk,’” she said. “It’s new every year so people look forward to it. We get so many great comments, and they’re all positive.” A big part of the sculpture walk is getting sponsors. Generally, sponsorships are sold for either $1,000 or $2,000. The number of sculptures on the walk depends on how many sponsors they get. While they can’t accurately say how many people actively view the sculptures, Lawton says they always run out of the 10,000 brochures they print, and word of mouth tells them the program’s reach is substantial. And in 2012, the Minnesota State Fair named the program one of its “Best of Minnesota” honorees.
MURALS
Perhaps even more visible than the sculptures are the community’s murals. And no mural is more visible, or more newsmaking, than the flood wall mural. In concept, the idea of a wall that mimicked what was on the other side may have seemed simple or pedestrian. But that outlook fails to take into account the growing disdain the community has for the wall. Yes, the wall has kept the flood waters at bay and probably saved the community millions of dollars. At the same time, though, it has caused the community to be separated from the natural resource that brought settlers here in the first place. For that reason, people have embraced the image on the wall. When it was painted, however, creative minds — all with the best of intentions — didn’t exactly agree artistically with each other and, before it was over, some artists’ work was painted over by others. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and today the flood wall mural stands proudly as both a protection against Mother Nature’s power, and a pleasant piece of public art. One of the artists whose contributions to the mural were, uh, incorporated into another artist’s vision, is Cimino. At the time, he held no hard feelings about what happened, and today remains a steadfast proponent of public art. He’d like to see more of it. “You make a conscious effort to go to a museum, and that’s fine. But to be able to drive by (pieces of public art), whether you like them or not, it gives people something to stop and think about, and whether they appreciate it or not, that’s not my concern,” Cimino said. “We have a community of really solid, ambitious artists.” He recognizes that his work isn’t for everyone. You can see Cimino’s work on display on South Riverfront Drive. The mural near the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, the pink and blue triangular shapes, is his creation. “There’s still definitely naysayers. One of my all time favorites, the one on South Riverfront, there’s a facebook page called Mankato Memories where someone posted a picture of it and said, ‘I hate it, it should have been a mini version of the Vietnam Vet Memorial,” he
said, laughing. “All these people are genuinely against it, and that’s good, that is healthy, I have no problem with people being against what is put up. But as far as people being against public art in general, I don’t think that’s the case.” Actually, the opposite appears to be true. Cimino says he thought the public’s desire for the work he does would wane, but it hasn’t. “When I did the South Riverfront Drive mural, I was like, ‘That’s it, no one’s ever going to ask me to do another one,’” he said. “But it keeps coming up. It’s not just the city, not just grants. It’s Dain Fisher wanting a Food Truck Hub mural, it’s Bellissimo wanting a mural, and others. … There just seems to be interest in it. People are finding value in it one way or another.” Megan Flanagan, director of Greater Mankato Growth’s City Center Partnership, said the sculpture walk and murals and public art in general are things the city can use to sell and promote itself. It’s another tool that can be used to foster tourism. “I’ve heard a business owner tell me that when they bring people in town for hiring, they tell them about the sculpture walk and all the public art here,” she said. “When this stuff is happening, it helps create a sense of pride and place; it’s something to be proud of as a community.” Mankato is doing whatever it takes to establish a reputation among artists as a place that appreciates the work — and men and women who create it. “We do have a reputation among the artists as being extremely welcoming to them,” Flanagan said. “For the sculpture walk, we invite the artists in for installation weekend, put them up in a hotel, throw a reception for them on Friday at Twin Rivers, Raw Fusion donates tickets to us so they’ll go to that. Then, the next morning, they help with the sculpture install, someone drives around with coffee and doughnuts, then we serve them dinner that night.” Flangan says about half the artists chosen for the sculpture walk come for the party. MM
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 27
Y A S
ES
By Renee Berg
I
A devotion to reinvention, as my mama taught me 28 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
am a huge fan of reinvention. It started early, too. At age 18 I was recruited to play college golf on a scholarship. After the first season, I decided I was through with competitive golf, I didn’t want to become a golf pro as planned and I quit the team. “We’re so disappointed in you,” my mother said, a slight I remember well — she was standing at the stove, making dinner as she did every night for our family of eight, and I was sitting in the living room beside my dad. For years, I stewed over that remark. I could quit if I wanted to, by God! It’s my life, not hers! But recently, in trying to recruit my family, friends and kids to join me on my latest, greatest quest (and finding that they’re straggling behind), I realized something: it ain’t easy being them. Take my mom, for example. She sacrificed a lot to introduce my five siblings and me to golf (and lots of other pursuits). She worked in the lower-paid profession of teaching so she could have her summers off and spend them with her family. She shopped only bargains, including at the grocery store – even planning dinners on the fly based on what was on sale at the grocer that night – and used some of those saved funds to pay for a family membership to a private, members’ only golf course. She outfitted us all with gear, even if I had to share my 7 iron with my twin brother Robert. The golf course is where I really grew up. I climbed aboard my mom’s push cart as a toddler and literally got pulled along. As the youngest of six, my schedule and nap time just weren’t that VIP, so there I was. I came of age on a golf course as my parents taught their six kids how to swing a club, track a ball and get up off the ground. There won’t be any crying because you hit it
into the woods yet again! Go find it! When you’re one of six, you get labeled quickly. Tom was the engineer nerd. Lynn the fun cheerleader. Me? I was the family’s golfer. I amassed tournament trophy after tournament trophy, got recruited by a college golf coach and off I went to pursue the collective family dream of becoming a golf sensation aka Patty Berg. And then, I abruptly decided, I’d had enough. I was fed up with it all. I didn’t want to wear a cute polo and pressed khaki shorts, which matched my teammates’ cute polo shirts and pressed khaki shorts. I hated the team bus rides to meets, and I didn’t like sharing a hotel room with my teammates. And meanwhile, on the course, my coach tried changing my whole approach to the game, saying I was too hasty and quick-tempered with my play. I made decisions too fast, he said. Slow down, take your time, he advised in watching me aim a Titleist through tree branches. And what of being a snarky — or at least aloof — player while matched with three fierce competitors during college tournaments? I grew up playing golf primarily with my family, and we always made it fun. We’d bet on who got their ball closest to the pin, or whether my brother Matt would quit on hole 2 and storm back to our cabin a ¼ mile away like always. Whatever it took, we had fun while we spent hours upon hours playing Voyager Village Golf Course in Danbury, Wisconsin. But college golf wasn’t fun and I disliked it. So one day, I marched to my coach’s athletic office and told him I was quitting. Then I marched back to my dorm and thought, What did I just do? My parents are going to kill me! Furthermore, I had been impulsive like usual and I hadn’t planned ahead. What would I replace golf with, exactly? I called upon my then-mentor Tom, my oldest brother. I’m going to be a sophomore in college soon, I said. What should I major in? My brother Robert was on path to be a math teacher like our parents. I was clueless. All I’d ever planned to do was golf, and now that was done. “You’re a writer,” Tom said. “Join the student newspaper.” I did just that, marching into to the college newspaper office and saying I wanted to write. Not interview anyone, but just write. When can I start? I asked the editor in chief, Robb Murray. Still a friend 20+ years later today, Robb laughed and laughed and laughed. “You want to write but not interview anyone? How do you think you get the material to put into your stories?” After his laugh fest, Robb sent me off on my first assignment. He had me go straight to the top and interview a college administrator about something or other. At first, I was God awful at interviewing people. I asked the tough questions first, rather than at the end after establishing trust and rapport. (At this, Robb also laughed and laughed.) But over time, I got the hang of it and quickly became a stand out at The Reporter. Robb promoted me to World News Editor, creating a new position on staff because he saw my potential. From there I was off, and I took over from Robb as editor in chief when he graduated and the seat was vacant. Since quitting golf and deciding to become a fullfledged, bachelor’s in communications, professional writer, I’ve reinvented myself scores of times. I wanted to get married, so I did. I wanted to be a stay-at-home
mom, so I became one. I no longer wanted to be married so I got a divorce (this was about as popular a decision as quitting golf). I decided being a reporter and editor weren’t for me any longer, so I segued into marketing for a for-profit. Then for a non-profit. Then decided I wanted to be an executive director, then to open my own business. You get the drift. As much as it pains my friends, family and kids when I declare, “I have an idea!” I do know one thing: this isn’t my fault. I’m innocent. My mom is this story’s perpetrator. You see, mom reinvented herself, too. She went from a dirt-poor, can’t pay the rent so we gotta move in the middle of the night family growing up in a small Minnesota town to a matriarch who headed a stable, suburban family of eight. She quit a teaching job to stay home with her kids, and after 10 years decided it was time to return to work. That day, she was hired by St. Paul Public Schools – without so much as having secured child care for pre-schoolers Rob and me. So from where does my proclivity for reinvention come? From her, of course. And in so realizing, I no longer fault my mom for saying she was disappointed in me for quitting the college golf team. She couldn’t know then what it’s taken me 44 years to figure out: I was merely following in the path she had walked for years and years and years. And besides, we can still golf together. For fun. MM Renee Berg is a professional writer and mom to two teens in Rochester. She is a graduate of Minnesota State University, and is no relation to the former professional golfer Patty Berg.
MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 29
DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: Mill City Museum By James Figy
The Mill City Museum is just a short drive away in Minneapolis.
Mull around the Mill
I
Minneapolis museum explores flour milling and regional history
t’s not just about the mills, and it’s not just about the city. Though those are two main starting points, Mill City Museum presents a breadth of historical information about the development of Minnesota, regional agriculture and international business. The main connection is Minneapolis’ mill district along the Mississippi River, according to Dave Stevens, site manager of Mill City Museum. “So much of the production of the farms from the upper Midwest — all of that wheat being cultivated and then shipped here to the Falls of St. Anthony to be ground up and then shipped all over the world — was an immense system all focused on this one place because of the water power,” Stevens said. 30 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
All of these topics come up during a tour of Mill City Museum, which offers a number of exhibits and opportunities to have fun while learning about the history of the flour milling industry and its effects on the region. Located inside the historic Washburn A-Mill complex, the museum’s main attractions include the Baking Lab where visitors can catch food preparation demonstrations by chefs and bakers, the Water Lab where visitors learn about the power of the Mississippi River and the multimedia Flour Tower exhibit. “The audience sits on a freight elevator, up to 35 visitors, and they move up and down through the mill. The machines come back to life, there are projections, and the voices of the real workers who worked at the mill,”
Milling has been an important part of Minnesota history. The Mill City Museum gives guests a comprehensive look at how it helped shape the region’s economy and culture. Stevens said. “It helps recreate what the flour mill was like when it was operating.” Mill Commons, which once was the packing floor of the Washburn A-Mill, houses the Bushel & Peck lunch café, gift shop and special exhibits showing the art and history of Minnesota. Every half hour visitors can catch a showing of “Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat,” which local humorist Kevin Kling created as “a love letter to his hometown,” Stevens said. In addition, visitors can explore the ruin courtyard, which still shows some of the devastating effects of the
1991 fire that gutted the Washburn A-Mill. While the museum updated some portions of the dilapidated mill, construction and renovation efforts are ongoing on the museum and the grain elevators, including elevator no. 1, which holds the Gold Medal Flour sign. This is just a reality of operating in a historic site, Stevens said. But the main improvements since opening 15 years ago have been to the neighborhood, which is now home to the Guthrie Theatre, the McPhail Center for Music and literary arts hub Open Book, as well as the Mill City Farmers Market.
“When we opened here in 2003, we were a little bit of an island. We were surrounded either by a lot of empty parking lots or construction that was going on,” Stevens said. “Since that time, most of those empty lots have filled in with residences and a number of other cultural amenities.” Of course, the museum has always had the benefit of standing a short distance from Mill Ruins Park, the historic Stone Arch Bridge and the St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam that powered the mills along the Mississippi. Visitors can take in the view from the museum’s rooftop observation deck, but the best way to explore is to take an outdoor tour during the warmer months. “A number of the tours take folks out onto the Stone Arch Bridge where you have the best view of St. Anthony Falls and a 360-degree view of the Heritage Zone,” Stevens said. “...We see Mill City Museum as a gateway for people to explore the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Zone, on one of our guided tours or they can take a self-guided tour on the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail, which is a system of markers that does a 1.8-mile loop on both sides of the river.” Overall, visitors to Mill City Museum see not only the history of the area but also how it lives on today, according to Stevens. “They’re always surprised that the story of flour milling is interesting and relevant to their lives and that it changed the way we eat and changed the history of the upper midwest, but also that we have a lot more to offer than just the story of flour milling,” he said. “To a certain extent, this is the best place to go to learn about the history of Minneapolis and how important the Mississippi River and the Falls of St. Anthony were — not only to the growth of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis flour mills, but that it affected an entire region. It had even international implications.”
IF YOU GO:
MILL CITY MUSEUM Where: 704 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis When: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 12-5 p.m. Admission: $6 to $12, free for Minnesota Historical Society Members and children under 4 Visit mnhs.org/millcity for more information MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 31
THEN & NOW: New Ulm’s Kiesling House By Bryce O. Stenzel
The Kiesling House in New Ulm was built in 1861 at a cost of $125.
F
New Ulm’s Kiesling House
riedrich Kiesling built a modest, wood-frame house for himself, his wife Caroline, and their three small children behind his blacksmith shop on North Minnesota Street in downtown New Ulm. It cost $125 to build the house in 1861. The Kiesling House remains the only wood-framed structure still standing in its original location from the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in New Ulm — all the more remarkable considering it was located at ground zero in the fighting that took place when the town was attacked twice — Aug. 19 and 23. Because of the house’s strategic location within the defensive barricades, — erected by New Ulm residents in the center of town — its two upstairs rooms were filled with hay. The intention was to burn the house to the ground if the barricades were breached by the Dakota. “The defenders [German settlers who founded New Ulm in 1853] didn’t want the Indians to have any place to hide so they [settlers] would’ve burnt down this house,” stated historian and current house manager Kathleen Backer, in a Sept. 17, 2017 Free Press feature story. Friedrich and Caroline, along with their children: Herman (age 5), Frances (age 4) and Emma (age 11 months) took immediate action, along with the rest of the New Ulm residents forced to confront the brutal reality 32 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
of war literally in their own backyards. Caroline Kiesling, along with the children, took refuge in the nearby Erd building, while Friedrich joined the other men in the defense of New Ulm. They were not alone. As refugees poured into New Ulm from outlying farms and smaller towns on the Minnesota frontier, its population swelled from 1,200 to 2,500 people. After the Second Battle of New Ulm on Aug. 23, the entire town was evacuated. Those 2,500 refugees (including the Kieslings) were sent to Mankato or St. Peter for safety — some went in wagons, some travelled on horseback and some walked the entire way. Fourteen days later, Friedrich and Caroline Kiesling returned to their house on Minnesota Street. Although they had left their home largely intact, they found it ransacked upon their return. All of their clothing and bedding had been removed. This tidbit of historical information is now known because the Kieslings filed a depredation claim for reimbursement from the federal government for the losses they incurred. Proof of that claim was a sworn affidavit recently discovered by Kathleen Backer in May, 2017. The Kieslings raised their children in the home, and the family remained there until 1935, when it became a rental property.
In 1970, the Kiesling House was purchased by descendants of the family, and donated to the City of New Ulm. The City repurposed the house into office space, which housed the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce and other organizations for many years. When those agencies moved out, Backer once again repurposed the house into an interpretive center, filling it with historical exhibits on the Kieslings and New Ulm’s role in the U.S.Dakota War. Most recently, the Kiesling House was involved in a critical debate over its future: The question: whether to use authentic, reproduction wooded siding and windows in restoring the house back to its 1861 appearance, or if lower-maintenance and lowercost materials could be used instead, as recommended by the New Ulm Park and Recreation Commission. According to the Park and Recreation Commission, using all wood materials would cost the City of New Ulm $55,000 more in installation and maintenance costs over the next 50 years. On the other hand, using non-wooded materials could cost the house to lose its status on the National Register of Historic Places. National Register status can help secure state and federal grants, but it can also limit local control over what types of building materials can be used to replace worn-out fixtures; a point made by New Ulm’s Parks Director, Tom Schmitz. Ultimately, the final decision was made by the New Ulm City Council, with recommendation from the New Ulm Heritage Preservation Commission, to go with the wooded materials option. Historian Backer, no doubt pleased with the Council’s final decision, made this statement in advance of the Council’s action: “I think it [using all wood materials] impacts the integrity of the house. If
The Kiesling House is open for tours 1-4 p.m. Saturdays. we want to preserve the house and our history we need to follow the guidelines laid out.” She pointed out that the Kiesling House “is a very significant part of our history.”
Too precious not to protect.
The Kiesling House,
at 220 North Minnesota Street, in downtown New Ulm, is open for tours 1-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 5. Admission is $3 per person and free for children 5 and under.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 33
REFLECTIONS By Jackson Forderer
I
t is no longer a secret that Old Town in Mankato is on the rebound. Watching the community get involved to help paint a mural on the side of Bellissimo Paint and Coatings was just one testament to that. As the outline of the mural was being put up the night before, just across the street, The Hub was host to the Solstice Festival. The once sparsely occupied neighborhood is now bustling with people, art, music MM and thriving businesses.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 35
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718 Mound Ave. Mankato, MN | 507-345-4576 | ecumenpathstoneliving.org Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 37
Teresa Saum is a retired teacher and volunteer tour guide for the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour. Photo by Amanda Dyslin 38 • LIVING 55 PLUS • AUGUST 2018 • Special Advertising Section
Many seniors giving back to community in retirement Story & Photos by Amanda Dyslin
A
s a retired teacher and a docent at the Arts Center of Saint Peter, Teresa Saum has plenty of experience leading a discussion. So when she saw a notice on Facebook about the need for tour guides on the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour, she thought, why not? “One, it’s something you can do outside in the summer,” said Saum of St. Peter. “And I like meeting people. I thought, ‘That would be an opportunity to talk to people.’ Third, I’ve always loved that sculpture walk.” Saum is one of many area seniors who have chosen to volunteer their time in retirement to a variety of nonprofit and charitable organizations. Their community impact is substantial. According to Mary Cassem of the Common Good RSVP Program, in 2017 the program had 1,275 senior volunteers who gave 101,587 hours of their time in the 16-county region of southern Minnesota. RSVP, a program of Catholic Charities of Southern MN, facilitates volunteer efforts for seniors over 55 years old. The program helps connect seniors to volunteer opportunities, and it helps community organizations find the help they need to do good work in the community. RSVP is one of several programs under the umbrella of The Senior Corps, operated under the Corporation for National and Community Service. More than 500,000 seniors participate in RSVP, the Senior Companion Program and the Foster Grandparent Program nationally.
Volunteer Jan Cole of North Mankato assists an ECHO client with picking out food.
One-stop shop
Cassem said seniors interested in volunteering are encouraged to go through RSVP because the program works with individuals on their scheduling needs, personal interests and skills. The program also offers supplemental accident and liability insurance to volunteers and mileage reimbursement. Food shelves and meal deliveries
are the largest category of volunteers, Cassem said. Many area seniors volunteer with ECHO Food Shelf and the New Ulm Area Emergency Food Shelf, for example. At ECHO, volunteers do a variety of tasks, from stocking shelves to doing donation intake, to sorting food, to assisting clients with picking out food to take home. “There are also people who are home
Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 39
bound, and volunteers go in and pick up groceries for them and deliver them,” Cassem said. Tom Karels Sr. of St. Clair went through RSVP to do food rescue for ECHO. He goes to Target to pick up frozen food, canned goods and fruit, and he brings the load back to ECHO to be weighed. “I just started this year,” Karels said. “I was talking with another fellow driver, and she’s a lady, and she says, ‘If you could help, they’d sure appreciate it.’” Karels said he had the vehicle for the job and also the time in his schedule, so he decided there was no reason not to help. “You get to meet a lot of new people,” he said. “And the work is not that hard.” Cassem said Meals on Wheels through Lutheran Social Services also uses a lot of senior volunteer help, as does the Salvation Army. But there are numerous volunteer opportunities beyond the heavy hitters. Part of RSVP’s goal is to find something suited to each individual. “We partner with most of the nonprofits, and we partner with some elementary schools,” Cassem said. “There’s a lot of different areas, and it kind of depends on what their interests are and how much time they have and what they want to work around in their schedules.”
Cassem said the program’s focus areas include: n Affordable food: This includes food shelves, food distribution sites, Meals on Wheels delivery and community meal locations.
Darlyne Deopere of Cambria, a longtime ECHO volunteer, helps put away meat.
n Affordable housing: Our local Habitat For Humanities providing new home builds and repairs. n A Million Thanks: Letters of prayers and appreciation written to our military members serving our country. n Intergeneration Connection: Pairing senior volunteers with young people fulfilling the role of tutors, mentors and reading buddies in the schools. n Senior Friendship: Matching volunteers with senior members of the community (only in Faribault and Northfield area)
40 • LIVING 55 PLUS • AUGUST 2018 • Special Advertising Section
n Transportation for Seniors: Providing the volunteers to partnering organizations to provide rides to medical appointments and errands. n VITA of Winona: Provides free tax preparation for people of all ages with now to moderate incomes.
A love of stories
It’s hard not to wonder about “Big Shoes to Fill,” the sculpture of the diapered baby in large tennis shoes outside Blue Bricks. The piece has become somewhat of a phenomenon, with people posing for selfies with the artwork and not always in … respectful ways. Part of the fun of taking a tour of the Sculpture Walk is putting those curiosities to rest and getting to learn exactly what the artist had in mind. In this case, artist Susan J. Geissler of New York was inspired by a moment on a family vacation to the Adirondack Mountains when her son went for a jog. “When he returned to our cabin, he removed his running shoes and went to take a shower. As his daughter, Gigi, spotted the empty shoes and climbed into them, I snapped the photograph which inspired this sculpture,” Geissler wrote in her artist statement. Saum enjoys sharing stories like this with tour groups. “I love stories,” she said. “The sculpture tour is really a chance to tell people’s stories.” Saum and Noelle Lawton, executive director of Twin Rivers Council for the Arts, said the tours are truly customized to each group. With the full tour being two miles, some groups may want to do just one piece at a time, for example. Saum did a tour with a group from Primrose Retirement Community and it was mostly by bus, with a couple of stops to offer people the chance to get off and take a closer look. “They seemed to enjoy that,” Saum said. “We drove into North Mankato, and we went by every single sculpture.” Saum said she would encourage other seniors to consider volunteering as tour guides, too. Like she did herself, she recommends new guides walk the tour once themselves, take Twin Rivers’ prepared materials along with them, stop at each sculpture and learn a little bit of background on each piece. Lawton said Twin Rivers has been doing these kinds of tours privately for five years or so but more recently expanded the offerings. They’re offered
Leo Roth of Mankato bags up fruit cups at ECHO Food Shelf, where he’s volunteered for years.
regularly at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of every month and also upon request for groups. “It’s just nice to have volunteers on hand so we can do a lot of these tours and accommodate these groups,” Lawton said. Lawton said new volunteers receive some informal training, and they are given a script, background information on the program and a free T-shirt. They are welcome to customize what else they would like to say on the tours. “It’s up to them how much extra they want to do in terms of finding out about the artists,” Lawton said. Lawton said the only criteria for
volunteering is being comfortable around people, being able to project your voice, being reliable, and being able to stand for a couple of hours and walk for about two miles. Those interested can contact Twin Rivers at 507-387-1008 or info@ twinriversarts.org.
Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 41
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Did you know? Minnesota Senior Corps, By the Numbers 14,438
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Kyle Snay medaled in all three pickleball events at the Iowa Senior Games, and he’s competing in those events mid-August in Mankato.
Area athletes gear up for
2018 Minnesota Senior Games By Amanda Dyslin
T
here was no way around it. It was coming. Fast. On a warm, sunny morning at Tourtellotte park, Jane Huang’s fate was sealed. In a split second, she was gonna take a bright yellow ball to the face. “Oh! There’s nothing I could do,” said Huang, as the ball skidded off her face while her doubles partner, Kyle Snay, looked on, mouth agape. Luckily, the chances of injury from this particular ball were slim. This was, after all, a pickleball match, a
paddle sport played with a polymer ball similar to a wiffle ball. But don’t let the equipment fool you. Sure, there was plenty of fun being had on this pickleball court. But there was also a healthy dose of competition. “We’re all competitive. We’re out there to compete, but we’re also having fun,” said Snay of St. Peter. Huang and Snay are two of many area athletes who will be competing in this year’s Minnesota Senior Games, to be held in Mankato Aug. 16-19. Mankato
44 • LIVING 55 PLUS • AUGUST 2018 • Special Advertising Section
will host an estimated 800 athletes, and those who medal will advance to the 2019 National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Despite only playing pickleball for a couple of years, Snay is no stranger to serious competition when it comes to the sport. Participants can play outside their state, and in Iowa, he won the gold in men’s singles, the gold in men’s doubles, and the silver in mixed doubles for pickleball. “I was considered the young gun,”
From left, Jane Huang and Kyle Snay play a doubles pickleball match at Tourtellotte park.
said Snay, who added he just qualifies to compete in the games. (The age minimum is 50.) Snay grew up playing tennis, so pickleball was an easy fit for him. The sport combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping pong. “I got hooked pretty quickly,” said Snay, who also teaches the sport. “It’s easy to learn but difficult to master.” Snay likes that the sport is accessible to people of all abilities because the players can choose how much they want to move around the court. Seniors appreciate that the sport is very low impact. “You can be as competitive or as casual as you want in this,” he said. “You meet so many people, and you really generate a lot of relationships and friendships with people.” Snay will surely be very competitive come mid-August. He’ll be competing in all three pickleball events again. “You’re definitely trying to win in a tournament situation,” he said. Joelle Baumann, special events manager with Visit Mankato, said participation will surely be up this year because 2018 is a national qualifying year. (Every second year is not.) Only
one location in the state hosts the games each year. “We are on a rotating schedule with St. Cloud. They had it in 2015 and 2016. We had it last year and this year,” Baumann said. Mankato also was granted the hosting duties for the event in 2021/2022 and 2025/2026. In a press release, Anna Thill, president of Visit Mankato, said the Senior Games are one example of an event that is helping to replace the economic impact of Vikings Training Camp, to which Mankato no longer plays host. (The games will have an estimated $500,000 economic impact.) “It’s a four-day event, which brings people to town to stay in hotels and really experience our community,” Baumann said. Baumann said pickleball, track and field, cycling, table tennis and swimming events are the most popular events of the Senior Games. For more information, visit
mnseniorgames.com.
From left, John Harrington, Jane Huang and Kyle Snay will be competing in the Minnesota Senior Games.
Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 45
Story and photos by Amanda Dyslin
Better age with
I
Over-50 softball league full of competitive friends who love the game
t had rained the first part of the day and the field was wet when Kevin Moret decided he wasn’t going to let this one get by him. It was the bottom of the inning, two outs, with runners on first and third. All of a sudden a batter dumps one into right field, and Moret, practically out of instinct, goes into a full sprint and dives for it. “I ran the whole way, and it was one of those, ‘Can I get to it? Can I get to it?’ moments,” said Moret of Mankato. Gliding along the wet grass, the ball landed in Moret’s glove. “You get that occasional moment yet when you say, ‘I still got it. I can still play that kids’ game,’” he said. “And you go into the dugout, and every single teammate is fist bumping you and saying, ‘Good catch.’” Any guy, any age, would take pride in a catch like that. For Moret and his buddies, there’s another layer.
Moret, who is 60 years old, made that catch just a few weeks ago. And while any 60-year-old would probably feel pretty great about still being able to dive for a ball, Moret did so under special circumstances. He’d taken off the past three seasons for health reasons. He’s had two kidney transplants, the last of which was a year and a half ago. He had that new kidney in mind when he rejoined the over 50 men’s softball league through Mankato Area Public Schools’ Community Education and Recreation department this summer, and he definitely had it in mind when his body hit the ground for that catch. Moret hadn’t played the outfield in four years. He was still getting the rust off, he said. “It probably wasn’t the wisest decision (to dive),” Moret said with a laugh. “I told myself each inning, ‘Make sure you don’t land on your left side,’ and I didn’t. I landed on my right side. I
46 • LIVING 55 PLUS • AUGUST 2018 • Special Advertising Section
did it right.” But these are the risks a guy over 50 has got to take for the love of the game to play in this league. Moret’s team, Roadhouse Red, and the five other teams that make up the over 50 league, are mostly made up of men who have loved and played the game for decades. They’ve still got skills, and they’re still competitive. “I have the fortune of telling people I’m 60 years old, and every month I feel a little better than the previous month,” Moret said.
Still got it
Seth Hoscheit is the CER recreation coordinator who has organized the league and done the scheduling for several seasons. Six teams make up the over 50 league, with a manager in charge of each, and Moret is the manager of Roadhouse Red. The guys decide their own teams, and
Kevin Moret (left) laughs with Landis Froehling in the dugout.
many of them have known each other and played on teams for years. “They might switch teams from year to year, or if somebody is new to town or just wants to play, they can call in or email, and I can get into contact with the six managers,” Hoscheit said. “It’s open to everybody.” Hoscheit said as players get older (some have been in their late 60s or 70s), they might run a bit slower. But for the most part, they’re well practiced and their skills are evident. “There are still home runs in the over 50 league,” he said. “Their skills are just as good as the other leagues.” They also take winning just as seriously, Hoscheit said. There are playoffs at the end of the season, and Roadhouse 169 was the winner last year. This year that team split into two
teams: Moret’s Roadhouse Red and the Roadhouse Rejects, which is the team Moret’s longtime friend Denny Weller manages. There’s definitely some friendly competition there between the friends, Moret said. (Moret was sure to emphasize that his team was in first place in mid-July.) But he also emphasized the “friendly” part. He and Weller started playing softball together about 45 years ago, and the sport has brought them back to the field every summer since. Weller said they played on the same team the first four or five years of their youth and then again beginning about 15 years ago. Even when Moret was out with his health problems, he’d still be at a lot of games in other capacities. It was tough to see his buddy on the sidelines.
“He was so weak,” Weller said of Moret’s health. “It was tough for us, too, but tougher for him. He likes to play the game. It was tough being away.” Weller himself hasn’t played for four or five years. After a fall on the field that resulted in some bruised ribs, he decided to take some time off and stick to managing a team every summer. That decision stuck. “I just decided pretty much that once I was done, I was done. I had a good career, a lot of fun, and made a lot of friends,” he said. Weller does miss playing, he says, but so much about what brings the guys to the field happens in the dugout and after the games when a bunch of them go have a beer or two, he said. “Softball is one of those deals where 90 percent of the people who play just
Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 47
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want a night out to spend with the guys – joking around in the dugout and just being around the team,” Weller said. Moret said it’s more like 50/50. “Half the teams are still pretty competitive with it, and for others, it’s a night out to hang with the guys,” Moret said. “At a certain age, it does become more about camaraderie than competitiveness.” Weller and Moret, who played baseball in high school, are in their 45th year of adult softball, having started at age 16 through the Mankato Area Softball Association, for which Moret is now the president. (Both men were inducted in the association’s Hall of Fame.) Having been in the over 50 league for a few years, they have a blast playing against guys they’ve known for decades. “If you lose, you’ve lost to your buddy,” Moret said, adding that newcomers are always welcome, whether it be individuals interested in joining a team or groups wanting to start their own teams. “We’d love to have more.”
Field of dreams
It was about 90 degrees at Caswell Park on a Wednesday in mid-July. Moret’s team was on field 3, and despite
Left: Lon Smith throws a pitch during a hot July game at Caswell Park. Middle: Base coach Matt Durheim tells Kevin Moret to keep rounding the bases while outfielders scramble to get the ball. Right: Kevin Moret gets a base hit during a mid-July game at Caswell Park. Bottom: Up next to bat, Kevin Moret watches his teammate get a hit.
the heat and humidity, the guys were looking all right. Aside from a few complaints about the weather, they were in good spirits – fist bumps on the way to bat for good luck and a bit of razzing from the
dugout. “Run, Forrest, run!” Moret yelled at a leisurely base runner. In a couple of hours or so, they’d all be out of there in time for a couple of cold ones at Roadhouse 169, the bar
Special Advertising Section • AUGUST 2018 • LIVING 55 PLUS • 49
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some of the players frequent that serves as namesake for Moret’s and Weller’s teams. “It’s one of the bonuses of playing in the over 50 league: We don’t play late games because our eyesight isn’t that good anymore,” Moret said. At 60, even with the two kidney transplants, Moret isn’t thinking about hanging up his cleats any time soon. He knows of one guy who was in his late 70s still pitching. “There are more people over 60 than not,” said Moret, who also said he wouldn’t be scared of a group of youngbuck 50-year-olds signing up to play next year. “We’d still beat ’em.” Plus, he said, the chance of having another one of those moments like the one during his sliding catch is too good to pass up. For Weller a moment like that came when he was the first person to hit a home run in Caswell Park when it opened in the mid-1980s. Thirty years later, he still takes pride in that hit. “We all have those moments yet, those little moments of glory,” Moret said. “It’s part of why we still play.” Any men over 50 interested in being part of the league can contact Seth Hoscheit, the CER recreation coordinator, at shosch1@isd77.org or 507-387-5501. An over 40 women’s softball league is also among the CER league options. For more information, visit mankatocer.com.
JOIN THE FIGHT FOR ALZHEIMER’S FIRST SURVIVOR. Mankato Walk September 22, 2018 School Sisters of Notre Dame 170 Good Counsel Dr., Mankato, MN
Kevin Moret (right) shakes hands with base coach Matt Durheim outside the dugout at Caswell Park.
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O
Enjoy! — Robb Murray, Associate Editor, Mankato Magazine
southern mn style
K, as you turn the page, you’re going to see images of the newest sweet treats available at this year’s Minnesota State Fair. And they look amazing! You should definitely, if you’re going to the Great Minnesota Get Together and you love sweet stuff, try them all. But … Don’t forget your old pal: the deep-fried cheese curd. Cheese curds have been there for you, man, they’ve been there making your mouth water for 30 years. They’ve never let you down. They deliver on EVERYTHING they promise: hot, greasy, cheesy, delicious. They’re the real deal. They’re as Minnesota as the Minnesota State Fair gets. And they’ll always be there. Even when some of these new foods come and go with the whims of the Minnesota palate, deep-fried chunks of cheddar cheese will never stop being a State Fair staple item. They are your rock, your bestie, your BFF. They’ll always have your back. So go on. Try that ice cream wrapped in cotton candy and dipped in Fruity Pebbles. Try all the new treats. Just don’t forget who’s been there for you all these years. They’ll always be there, in the food building, waiting for you by the bucket, a bucket full of the kind of love you can get nowhere else on earth.
food, drink & dine
Can we talk about cheese curds for a minute?
MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 53
Food
food
By Amanda Dyslin
southern mn style
State Fair Food-Off! (Sweets Edition) The new food offerings at the fair include lots of sugary concoctions
W
e don’t have to tell you that there are a bajillion reasons to head up to the Great Minnesota Get-Together. Those baby animals alone … don’t get us started on the cuteness overload. But the food, people. The food. That’s the real star. And it’s always so much fun to pore over the list of new offerings and make mental notes on the must-try items. The writer of this very article, well, she’s got a sweet tooth (sweet TEETH is more like it), and she thought it might be fun to have a little informal State Fair Food-Off. We put six of the new sweet offerings in heats, going head to head for the glory of being Most Anticipated State Fair Food In This Particular Category By A Pool of Folks Who Happened To Vote. The anticipation must be killing you, so let’s get to it.
Cakes
Triple Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake vs. Sweetie Cakes
Triple Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake: Dense chocolate cake with chocolate chips and fudge icing smothered with strawberries and whipped cream; by The Strawberry Patch.
Let’s meet our contestants:
Winner, with
57%
of the vote: Triple Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake!
Sweetie Cakes: Choice of black forest cake, birthday cake or chocolate peanut butter cake, baked in a cup packed with Sassy Pecan toffee bits and served warm, topped with real whipping cream and more toffee bits; by Sweetie Cakes.
Some voters considered this quite an upset. “No fruit on chocolate! Crime against humanity,” wrote voter Shelley Tougas, to which Diane Winegar concurred: “I’m with you on that! I love fruit and I love chocolate, but do not like them combined!” 54 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Frozen Drinks
Honey Cream Soda Float vs. Mangonada Shave Ice Let’s meet our contestants: Honey Cream Soda Float: Honey cream soda (made without sugar) poured over Minnesota Grown honey ice cream; by Minnesota Honey Producers.
Winner, with
Mangonada Shave Ice: Mango-flavored shave ice drizzled with Mexican chamoy sauce, dusted with tajin chili powder, topped with popping mango boba pearls and served with a tamarind candy straw; by Minnesnowii Shave Ice.
57%
of the vote: Mangonada Shave Ice!
Voter Carrie Grace approved of the win. “I WANT TO EAT THAT,” she textually yelled, succinctly. Regina Mader dissented, adding that the honey cream soda float was “calling her name.”
Smoked Soft Serve Ice Cream vs. Rainbow Cloud Roll Let’s meet ’em:
Ice Cream
Smoked Soft Serve Ice Cream: Cold-smoked cream available in two flavors, all made on-site: Cold Brew Coffee infused with cold-smoked Arabica beans and topped with chocolate espresso dust, a toasted marshmallow and a chocolate cookie on the side; Muscovado Sugar Vanilla combines vanilla bean and cold-smoked molasses-rich cane sugar served with a toasted marshmallow and bacon candy round on the side. Optional sauces available: bourbon-soaked cherries or hot chocolate; by Blue Moon Dine-In Theater.
Winner, with
60% of the vote: Rainbow Cloud Roll!
Perhaps neither pro nor con on trying it, Ann E. Judkins had an interesting way of describing the winning concoction: “like a ravaged flamingo.” Well, that does it for the first-ever State Fair Food-Off! (Sweets Edition). The tight races make one thing clear: There really aren’t any losers here, folks. Enjoy the “crimes against humanity” and “ravaged flamingos”! We’ll see you at the fair.
Rainbow Cloud Roll: Three scoops of ice cream sprinkled with fruity cereal and wrapped in a pillow of cotton candy. Hand-rolled on-site. Ice cream choices include Superman, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate; by Rainbow Ice Cream. MANKATO MAGAZINE •
AUGUST 2018 • 55
Wine & Beer
HAPPY HOUR By The Washington Post
Summer cocktail recipes to expand your happy hour horizons
southern mn style
I
t’s getting hot outside, and you’re looking for a simple way to wow friends at your next party. Why not make some classy cocktails? There are a good number of impressive and refreshing drinks you can make at home without needing any fancy equipment. From a coconutty pitcher drink to an inventive play on a gin and tonic, these five concoctions might be hard to put down. If you don’t believe us, take it from the acclaimed female mixologists who shared the recipes of their favorite summer cocktails.
In the Dunes of the Cape
6 to 8 servings Adapted from Gina Chersevani, founder of Buffalo & Bergen in Washington. Chersevani’s summer drinks tend to go light on the alcohol, she says, “so you can enjoy a few without getting totally loaded in the heat” this pitcher cocktail is no exception. In the Dunes of the Cape is inspired by her love of piña coladas and named after a lyric from the Rupert Holmes song “Escape.” Make ahead: The un-iced mixture can be refrigerated several hours in advance.
Mortimer + Mauve
1 serving Adapted from Pamela Wiznitzer, former creative director of Seamstress in New York City. This drink is a variation on the popular Manhattan once offered at Seamstress, a recently closed restaurant on the Upper East Side. It is named in memory of two pigs, Mortimer and Mauve, who resided at the WhistlePig distillery in Vermont. Make ahead: The chai-infused sweet vermouth needs to be done at least 30 minutes in advance. Ingredients Ice 1 1/4 ounces rye 1 1/4 ounces chai-infused sweet vermouth (see NOTE) 1/2 ounce ginger liqueur, such as Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur Twist of orange peel, for garnish 56 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Steps Place a large ice cube in a lowball glass. Add the rye, the chaiinfused sweet vermouth and the ginger liqueur, stirring gently to incorporate. Twist the orange peel directly over the drink before dropping it in. Note: To make chai-infused sweet vermouth, pour one 375-milliliter bottle of sweet vermouth into a large jar. Add 3 chai bags, making sure they are submerged. Let sit for 30 minutes, then discard the tea bags. Use a funnel to transfer the infused vermouth back into its original bottle, if desired. Seal and refrigerate for up to six months. Wondering what the difference is between sweet vermouth and dry vermouth? The former has a more detectable spiciness, enhanced by the chai bags.
Ingredients 1 cup tequila 1 cup agave syrup 1 cup fresh pineapple juice 1/2 cup fresh lime juice Ground cayenne pepper Ground cinnamon Ice 6 stems mint 8 6-ounce cans of coconut-flavored sparkling water (or another tropical flavor, like lime or mango) Steps Stir together the tequila, agave syrup, pineapple and lime juices, a pinch of cayenne and another of cinnamon in a large pitcher, until the agave has fully dissolved. Fill the pitcher with ice, to the top. Insert the stems of mint straight down the sides of the pitcher (as if you were planting grass), then fill the pitcher with the sparkling water. Serve the drinks over ice in a Collins glass.
BEER
By Bert Mattson
Lifting the haze about hops
I
t is important to distinguish between bitter and hoppy. IBU — the abbreviation for International Bittering Units — has become ubiquitous in beer halls and on containers. It has come to be something of a sales device to denote hops. Being a scale to gauge bitterness in beer expressly, it’s a bit fuzzy in that function. “Hoppy” is a term that encompasses flavor and aroma. Bitter is an element of taste — a function of flavor, to be sure. But flavor is a combination of aroma and taste. Appreciation of aroma isn’t confined to a preswig sniff. Aromas continue to work on the senses, through alternate pathways, as a beverage swirls around the palate. These exist even — see last month’s article — as bitterness is balanced out by ulterior influences. Citrusy, earthy, floral, piney, herbal, fruity are but a few of the descriptions found in hop profiles, shaping the experience in concert with taste and tactile sensations. Reflecting the distinction above, brewers have been adjusting their processes away from hopping heavily in the early stages for bitterness, toward adding hops late or after the boil for complexity or intensity of aroma and flavor. Heat works on alpha acids to achieve bitterness but long exposure adversely influences the capture of nuanced flavor compounds residing in volatile oils. Tea drinkers might see some small analogy here, whereby a bag too long in the water sacrifices subtlety, ultimately yielding a bitter brew. Further, breeding programs are advancing with the goal of developing or enhancing the expressive capacity of hop varieties. These advancements bulge the hop
profile catalogues with intriguing entries such as blueberry and passion fruit. With this distinction in mind, the pendulum has swung so far that the East Coast answered with Hazy IPA (now produced everywhere), re s t r a i n i n g b i t t e r n e s s , and arguably erring in the other direction — accusations abound of f r u i t f o r w a rd n e s s t o the extreme of singular dimension. It’s at least, if not more, as contentious as its cousin West Coast IPA was once (not that normal people should care at all what fanatics fight over). This sally onto the field of IPA ultimately achieved the addition of Hazy IPA, by the Brewers Association, to the Beer Style Guidelines. Brewers of the style set about tempering bitterness by tinkering with water chemistry. This also lays the foundation for a creamy mouthfeel, which is built on with higher protein grains such as wheat and oats. Yeast strains are selected for esters — fruity flavors produced in fermentation. As discussed above, hop varieties are selected for effect, and introduced at the ideal points in the brewing process. None of these techniques originated with Hazy IPA, but it is the unique convergence of them all. Arguably one of the finest widely available examples of Hazy IPA is Hazy Little Thing from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The flavor follows tropical fruit on the nose, shows restrained bitterness that does not linger, and little discernible malt sweetness. A balanced and distinguished summer sipper. For a local version look into Fulton Beer’s Hopstar. Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com
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AUGUST 2018 • 57
THAT’S LIFE By Nell Musolf
Let’s get
physical! I
came across a photograph from Christmas 1991 the other day. It showed my then 1-year old son, Joe, sitting in his Christmas present, a red wagon, and me next to him holding mine, a ThighMaster, the incredibly popular exercise device peddled by 1970’s sitcom queen, Suzanne Somers. The ThighMaster was basically a giant plastic covered spring that promised the user trim thighs in a matter of weeks simply by squeezing the ThighMaster while watching television (presumably reruns of “Three’s Company”), reading or even sunbathing. Some women might have been insulted to find a ThighMaster under the Christmas tree with their name on it. I wasn’t one of them. I asked Santa for the ThighMaster because I, Don Draper’s ideal consumer and a sucker for any and all advertising promising youth, beauty and vitality, believed the ThighMaster would take my untoned thighs and make them Suzanne Somers-sleek in a matter of weeks. Joe enjoyed his red wagon and played with it for years. I wish I could say the same about my ThighMaster. Although I was a dedicated user from Christmas through at least New Year’s Eve, the thrill soon faded, just as the thrill quickly wore off every other piece of fitness apparatus I’ve owned over the years. The ThighMaster wound up in the basement with all the other fitness equipment castoffs. It started with a rowing machine my parents bought with the idea of turning their couch potato children into rowing-on-the-Thames worthy athletes. The rowing machine was fun, but it was also incredibly loud. Made of metal, it clanked loudly when used, making it impossible for us to hear the television over the sound of rowing. It took perhaps one evening for my siblings and I to decide we’d rather hear our TV shows than develop our deltoids. Then there was the stationary bike purchased at a rummage sale early in our marriage. Again, I had visions of an ultra-fit body within weeks, all without ever having to leave the comfort of our living room. The problem with stationary bikes is two-fold: A) they’re boring, and 2) they make it nearly impossible to stand, sit or walk after riding one for any length of time over 15 minutes. I halfheartedly rode the bike for a few weeks before selling it at a rummage sale of my own. The next purchase in the world of physical fitness wasn’t made by me but by my husband, Mark. Mark is also a sucker for ads, going all the way back to those X-ray vision glasses advertised in the back of comic books in the 1960’s. He decided to order an inversion table, the kind sold at two in the morning by a salesman who claims to be one hundred and twelve but who moves with the 58 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
agility of a sixteen-year old. “I need one of those,” Mark announced one night when we were both up watching infomercials instead of getting much needed beauty sleep. “You’ll use it once and then you’ll never use it again,” I predicted. “I will not. I’ll use it every day. My back’s really been sore lately. I think that’s exactly what I need. Let’s order one.” The inversion table arrived a few days later and Mark used it daily, for one entire week. He claimed it really did help his back, until he injured himself moving it from the corner of the family room where I made him store it, to the middle of the living room where he liked to hang upside down in front of the picture window. It wasn’t long before the inversion table earned a spot next to the ThighMaster in the basement.
It was around a milestone birthday when I decided to buy an elliptical machine in one final attempt to ward off the relentless march of Father Time. Once put together, the elliptical took up the same amount of space as a small sauna but wasn’t nearly as much fun. As a matter of fact, I’d call using an elliptical machine one of the least enjoyable ways to spend half an hour I can possibly imagine, approximately on the level of scraping paint under a noon sun on a day with 95 percent humidity. The elliptical was too big to put in the basement so we donated it to a charity and adopted a dog. I think it was a wise decision. You can’t ignore a dog by putting him in the basement and walking him daily gets us out of the house and away from all those infomercials.
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Nell Musolf is a mom and freelance writer from Mankato. She blogs at: nellmusolf.com
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MANKATO MAGAZINE •
AUGUST 2018 • 59
GARDEN CHAT By Jean Lundquist
I tried, but … The WEEDS are winning (for now)
I
t happened to me. Again. For all my
bravado about retiring and spending all of my time in my garden, it didn’t happen that way, and the weeds won. For now. I’ve always believed that once the weeds get away from you, it’s hard to get your garden back, if not impossible. At this point, I am hoping I can keep the weeds from going to seed, and keeping a reasonable semblance of order in my garden. Either way, I’m going to need to put down tarps again this fall, and try for better next year. In my defense, lest you think this catastrophe occurred due to pure laziness on my part, it DID rain every single day and night in June. While not exactly 40 days and 40 nights, over 12 inches on rain in a month creates a lot of mud. At some point, I told myself, I would be doing as much harm by working in the garden as I did by staying out of it. Meanwhile, I did scrub floors and wash windows. And I’m working on getting my floor loom warped, and working on decluttering, as well. Of course, none of this puts vegetables on the table. The conditions were ideal this summer for weeds and mosquitoes — the majority of the flora and fauna of my garden this year. Although all my plants have been crowded, and things like radishes and carrots don’t like competition, I’m not going to starve or be veggie-deficient in my diet by any means. I just have to work a little harder to find some things, and expect diminished production. The rain has increased the population of critters visiting in my yard. Thanks to the fence my friend Sam put up for me, and the fact that I sold my chickens, they are staying out of my garden for the most part. One thing the weather was good for, I was happy to discover, was toad reproduction. At one point in late June and early July, my garden was hopping with baby toads. I haven’t seen this many in the yard or garden for several years. I always have loved baby toads. They are my favorite 60 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
amphibian, ever since the day, many decades ago when my siblings and I were children. One Saturday afternoon, my younger brother captured a baby toad. With nowhere to put it, he just conveniently plopped it in our Dad’s coffee cup sitting on the picnic table. Dad didn’t discover it until he took his next swig, and he was NOT happy. I hope those baby toads are happily dining on as many mosquitoes out there as possible, secure in the knowledge they are not headed for a swim in a coffee cup. Another yard and garden pest I’ve been hearing a lot about this year is chiggers. I have never experienced the mites known as chiggers, but I do know they are uncomfortable. My cousin Mary used to attract them when no one else did on family picnics, etc. Her rashes were almost painful to look at. Some folks are encountering chiggers in their yards, others actually find them in their vegetable gardens. Chiggers mostly seem to like damp and swampy areas. I guess my garden would qualify in that category. Lord willing, I will not get a chigger infestation. Several years ago, I bought a netted hooded jacket to keep the mosquitoes off of me. The netting is tight enough to prevent mosquitoes from getting into the jacket. This means the movement of air is also restricted, and thus, is VERY hot. Because I hate to spray bug repellant chemicals on my skin, I spray it on my clothing, and on my hooded, netted jacket, and go out and offer myself to the little blood suckers if they dare to make a try for me. With a bandana on my forehead to keep sweat out of my eyes, and a Mira Cool Bandana around my neck to help keep me cool, those weeds are in trouble. My garden has seldom been so overrun with weeds as it was this year. However, I am retired, I am invincible, and I will let you know how it all worked out next month.
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Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com
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MANKATO MAGAZINE •
AUGUST 2018 • 61
YOUR STYLE By Ann Rosenquist Fee
OK well I guess I’m a person who wears a skort, now. Banana Republic via Salvation Army Thrift. Coach Koehler circa 1973 by Lyle B. Nelson.
I
Skort 101
t’s U.S. Open time! Which I didn’t care about until retired Gustavus Adolphus College women’s tennisand-other-things Coach Gretchen Koehler schooled me on how the 19th Amendment, birth control, and French legend Suzanne Lenglen (31 championship titles 1914-1926, plus the bold badass debut of bare calves and forearms on the court) made it possible for me personally to prance around in a 95 percent polyester/5 percent other fibre two-zipper-pocket skort like it’s nothing at all, not breaking any laws, ready to run from predators or compete on the circuit as mobile as any human male. I had happened to mention to Dr. Koehler that I was unteachable in regard to tennis or any other athletic pursuit. If you don’t want to find yourself on a court learning the basics of the game, maybe don’t do that, because any coach-to-the-core is going to take it as an irresistible challenge. I said “no” about a billion times until I came across some mention of how both PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour start their days around 4:30 a.m. smashing balls served up to them by a tennis pro. Not going for a run, not meditating — but taking aim, making contact with a thing, feeling the feel of follow-through. Not a bad way to start a day of leadership and decision-making. They also both have fantastic style. I figured it was worth a try. Dr. Koehler adapted her Tennis 101 curriculum to a 62 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
two-session private lesson in Gustavus’ Swanson Tennis Center. Session one took place over spring break so there were no witnesses, which, turns out that was less necessary than I thought, because thanks to her otherworldly patience and step-by-step methodology, I made actual contact with several balls. Some cleared the net. A few cleared the net and went into the right spot on the other side of the court, where Dr. Koehler twice sent balls back to me, which I returned, thus qualifying our session as “having played tennis.” It’s in her Tennis 101 curriculum, or at least she swore to me, that if the ball makes it back and forth across the net three times you can say you played tennis. At this writing, session two has yet to take place, partly because my attire the first time around was all wrong. I have since replaced my laceless contourless Chuck Taylors with (I would give the make and model here but really I just bought the first white-soled cross-trainers I could find at a thrift shop, and I am sure I’ll be just fine making these pink things synch with my overall seawitch-at-midlife style). Also, same thrift store, I found the fabulousness pictured above. Who knew Banana Republic trafficked in tennis attire, or that skorts can be classy daily wearables. No idea what the “5 percent other fibre” is but honestly this thing looks freshly pressed even when I run around in it, as I have, basically around my house, wondering how
I’m going to live through a second lesson with the possibility of other people on the court. The fabric is also weirdly sturdy and breathable at the same time, which is exactly what every woman wants both gym shorts and formalwear to be and they never ever are. But this dang thing is. It also has side zippers, also two back pockets, I don’t know for what, maybe a golf pencil and a tiny notebook to take notes on whatever Dr. Koehler has to say. When I shared with her the exciting news of my skort, that’s when she threw down the history lesson beginning with ratification of the 19th Amendment which effectively made women count as persons, a critical first step toward being allowed to play tennis. L a t e r, t h e i n v e n t i o n a n d widespread use of the birth control pill — terminology coined by Margaret Sanger circa 1914 — made competitive women’s sports a real deal, “because you couldn’t compete if you were pregnant.” Around Sanger’s time, Suzanne Lenglen was celebritizing the game by simultaneously showing more skin than had appeared previously on the court, and winning titles like mad. “She’s the reason you get to walk around wearing whatever you feel like wearing,” Coach said. “Versus this.” (See: Stack of handouts on the history of corsets and the history of tennis fashion, plus the Frances E. Willard book How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman. I probably still have them so, you know, message me if you’d like to borrow.) U.S. Open Women’s Singles begin Aug. 27. I don’t know if watching is going to help my game or just intimidate me or make me confused about the lines between figure skating fashion and tennis fashion, or make me love or hate the catsuit Serena Williams introduced to much controversy — fashion-wise and regulation-wise — during the French Open. See how I just dropped “French Open” like a person who does tennis? Indra Nooyi, Anna Wintour, Coach Koehler, Suzanne Lenglen, me. Moving personkind forward one lesson and/or one skort at a time. Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and a vocalist with The Frye. She blogs at annrosenquistfee.com.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE •
AUGUST 2018 • 63
NIGHT MOVES — VETTER STONE AMPHITHEATER By Diana Rojo-Garcia
Gary Allan plays guitar and sings during his performance at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater. Allan brought his country rock sound to Mankato and regional fans on the evening of June 22. Photo by Jackson Forderer
Outdoor amphitheater a prime concert venue Great sight lines, close concessions, plenty of restrooms
A
low rumble releases from the speakers on stage and begins to shake the cement, vibrating through the metal chairs on the main floor of the Vetter Stone Amphitheater. A skull presents itself upon the screen as the stage fills with smoke. Hollers and cheers in anticipation of Gary Allan’s 64 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
appearance begin in the midst of the plaid-cowboy-hat-denimwearing audience. After a few moments of the chords looming over the audience, Allan walks on stage in a black T-shirt and leather jacket like a true rock star and begins playing his first song of the night: “Man Of Me. “ Although most of the concert
goers were doubling down on Coors Light and Bud Light before Allan’s performance, they remained timid – a few head nods synchronized with the beat of the music, some others finding their way to the main floor of the venue to get a better view of their favorite musician. It wasn’t until the third song on the set list, “Nothing On
But the Radio,” that fans began loosening up a bit by dancing while strategically holding their beer. A couple of songs in, a man — who was definitely “loosened” up — was cordially escorted back to his seat, but not before party-boying the security guard (who was a saint.) Another woman, who was just obviously enjoying the night by boogying, ended up twerking on that same security guard, who just laughed it off (again, a saint.) Maybe it was the steady flow of booze, but it was more than likely the picturesque summer night — the sun barely setting which painted the sky high hues of reds, oranges and yellows which peaked through the trees in the background – the night was basically what you’d imagine featured in a country music video. Even better yet, no mosquitos. “What a beautiful night,” Allan said in between songs, right before the sun fell into the horizon and fireflies began to illuminate the sky. nnnn The Vetter Stone Amphitheater has recently gone through a facelift. The venue still has an open and spacious layout, but now it’s a little more organized for fans. Before, the amphitheater’s layout included a grassy area for audiences that gave them the choice of bringing a lawn chair or sitting on the grass. Closer to the stage, it had rising tiers made of limestone. The experience of the prior set up was by no means unpleasant, especially in the traditionally warm August weather during the annual Ribfest, but the upgrades made to the venue have maximized the concert-going experience. Instead of relying on bringing your own seat, the venue now has foldable chairs — each with the corresponding number found on the ticket — separated into tiers and a main floor. The reserved seating not only allowed a better view for the audience — whether it was up on the tiers or on the main floor — it also provided an organized flow of traffic while people looked for their seats, shuffled around to get to a restroom or as they went to grab another drink. Light strips also lit up the stairs that led up to the exits (or bathrooms, or concessions) as the night started. The venue is accommodating to beverages, with a main bar located on the far end of the venue and two smaller bars located on the left and right closer to the stage. Plus, for the inevitable beer munchies, the 507 Food Truck, Lola’s Food Truck and a kettle corn stand were available for snacks. An all-in-one stop for the best concert experience. Don’t just take my word for it — the Star Tribune has named the Vetter Stone Amphitheater one of the best outdoor music venues in May mentioning that the best features are the open layout, “decent concessions and facilities,” and the “fun vibe.” And boy, do country music fans know how to have fun. nnnn “I know I’ve said it already, but what a beautiful night,” Allan said. The night was settling in, the purple hues from the lights on stage complimented the violet streaks in the night sky. A squadron of fireflies flitted about, seemingly coordinated with Allan’s music as his setlist
Luke Zollnar of North Mankato exhales while vaping an e-cigarette before the start of the Gary Allan concert held at Vetter Stone Amphitheater. Photo by Jackson Forderer went from summer classics to more somber songs. He began to sing another song which, to my dismay, I didn’t know. That’s when my Nordeast pounder had the audacity to have been empty half-way through the concert. Thankfully, my favorite song hadn’t been performed quite yet and the drinks weren’t too far away. After a few shimmies and “pardon me”s through the small groups of people on the steps, I power walked up to the main bar, which was now completely open. At the beginning of the concert while opening act Scott Stevens took the stage, the line was extraordinarily long. Regardless, the bartenders were a well-oiled machine as they checked wristbands and served drinks. “Two Nordeast, please,” I said. The bartender popped open the two pounders as I swiped my card on the iPad. Eleven bucks for two drinks? That’s a steal. I leave a couple of bucks in the tip jar and I shimmy and “pardon me” my way back to the main floor. As soon as I settle back into the crowd, the screen behind Allan and his band begins to show a black and MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 65
From left, Haley Deike, Karen Wasko and Kenzie Pomranke talk and drink before the start of the Gary Allan concert held at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater on June 22. Photo by Jackson Forderer
white video, and the familiar organ of my favorite song overtakes the crowd. “Is this it?” I asked my husband. He nodded. I clench the Nordeast to my chest, as many others did as well. “I stood there in the middle of the church of the broken people,” Allan croons. “This is it!” I yelled over the music. I sing along the best I could with Allan as he sang “It Ain’t the Whiskey,” my favorite song.
Kunst often goes to concerts, but he’s thrilled to have one of the best outdoor venues in Minnesota right here in Mankato. “I think it’s great that Mankato is able to host many national acts of many different genres,” he said. “We seem to get a lot of good, big names.” Including Allan. And yes — Allan performed Kunst’s favorite song, “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful.” nnnn
nnnn Chris Kunst, an avid Gary Allan fan, says it was his first time being at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater post renovation. He’s been to four other Gary Allan concerts, and numerous concerts at the venue itself. He echoed the Star Tribune’s thoughts about the venue’s open layout, and pointed out another noteworthy fact. “I liked that the chairs were already there,” Kunst said. “I didn’t need to bring a chair, there was a seat and it wasn’t some people sitting in rocks or other people sitting in their own chairs.” And of course, having the venue outside was a perk in of itself. “The outdoors are always great,” he said. “Ninetynine percent of the time, the weather is beautiful and it’s nice to be outside in the evening enjoying the fresh air with great music.” 66 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
As the night was winding down with some more of Allan’s top hits, such as “The Best I’ve Ever Had,” “Watching Airplanes” and his latest single, “Mess Me Up,” my husband and I decided to leave as the crowd was clapping and shouting out for an encore. We walked up the lit stairs to exit. The crowd was highlighted again by the blue and purple lights from the stage and faint, small rectangular white lights from people’s smartphones facing the stage. I stepped aside while I waited for my husband as others left the concert to hit the bars. “Are you having fun, hon?” A personable young woman with cowboy boots and a Bud Light in her hands asked. Must have been my face. “I’m having a great time!” I reassured her. And I sure did.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: AUGUST 8-12 Brown County Free Fair
Brown County Fairgrounds — 1201 N. State St. — New Ulm — newulm.com.
9, 16, 23, 30
Alive After Five, featuring Erik Koskinen Band, Last Revel, Sawyers Dream and Devon Worley, 5 p.m. — Civic Center Plaza — 1 Civic Center Plaza — Mankato — Free — citycentermankato.com.
2-5
Rib Fest, featuring John Michael Montgomery with the Chris Hawkey Band, Bret Michaels with Arch Allies and Sugar Ray with Tonic Vetter Stone Amphitheater — Mankato — verizoncentermn.com.
5
BlackTop Mojo, 7 p.m.-12 a.m. — The What’s Up? Lounge — 701 N. Riverfront Drive — $5 — 21+ event — whatsuplounge.com.
8-12
Nicollet County Fair Nicollet County Fairgrounds — 400 W. Union St. — St. Peter — nicolletcountyfair.com.
25
Hairball, 7 p.m. — Vetter Stone Amphitheater — Mankato — $20 advance sales, $20 day of show — verizoncentermn.com.
25
Useful Jenkins and Wayne Suchy Band, 6 p.m. — Nashville Saloon — 108 S. State St. — Waseca — VIP tickets for $35; general admission $25 — 507-835-2412.
28
9
Gov’t Mule with special guest, The Magpie Salute, 7 p.m. — Vetter Stone Amphitheater — Mankato — $79, $59, $49, $39, $29, $25 — verizoncentermn.com.
12
Meet Crazy Horse family members and author William Matson, 5 p.m. — Blue Earth County Library — 100 E. Main St. — Mankato — 507-304-4001.
Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Los Lobos, 6:30 p.m. — Vetter Stone Amphitheater — Mankato — $89, $69, $59, $45, $35, $25 — verizoncentermn.com. North Mankato Triathlon, adult race at 8 a.m., kids race at 3 p.m. — Hiniker Pond — 300 Butterworth St. — Mankato — $78 individual, $129 team, $45 5K, $35 kids — finalstretch.com/northmankatotriathlon.
28
17
Joel Kachel 5-8 p.m. — Mankato Brewery, 1119 Center St. — North Mankato — mankatobrewery.com.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE •
AUGUST 2018 • 67
FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner
I
Rhymin’ Rex and Radio
was watching a TV news feature, an interview with legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, about his new book. “Jeanne, come and see this!” I called to my wife. I wanted her to see Hersh’s office, nearly every square foot of desk and floor space cluttered with piles of old newspapers, books and manila folders. “See, I have something in common with the greats!” (That is, beyond being a male human who attempts to write.) She raised her eyebrows and scrunched her face. BUT, in my defense, whenever I worry I’ll run out of ideas for this space, I can go to what we call “the Wreck Room,” my home office, a former children’s bedroom. There I rummage through old magazines, boxes of papers and scribbled thought starters. Something useful always emerges. For example, the Jan. 30, 1988 front page of the Free Press. And lying nearby, an orange booklet titled “Macho Poems.” •••• I believe it was Brian Ojanpa who, in a front page article that day, coined the term “the bard of the steel-belted radial” and applied it to Rex Macbeth. Rhymin’ Rex was the legendary tire shop owner who loved not only tires, but also poetry. He used poetry to market those tires, along with his common sense, homespun philosophy. Rex would arrive at the radio station periodically to record a new commercial. With an earnest, earthy voice, he would recite for the microphone and me. In the strict, 30-second time slot, he’d typically incorporate some local perspective, as in one called “Used Tires”: Used tires sure are nasty beasts/ their lives have little glory But they buy food for many feasts/ and tell a crazy story I’ve got some off of pickup trucks that had the smell of hogs Others with white walls turned gold from bein’ close to dogs. He gave me a copy of his book, and I dog-earred a bunch of my favorite “poe-ayms,” as Rex liked to call them. (Because of space and copyright limitations, I quote only a few appropriate lines.) Right now, I’m reading Ken Auletta’s “Frenemies,” about ongoing cataclysmic changes in the world of advertising and marketing. It has reminded me that decades ago, Rex Macbeth captured the holy grail of advertising: people would actually turn UP the volume, wanting to hear Rex’s ads on the radio. From “The Commercial Writer”: When I write a commercial I try to have some fun, And avoid the common old clichés that so many have overdone. I hope to bring a little zing to the day of common folk 68 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Whether it be a philosophy or a harmless little joke. Then he’d throw in the pitch for tires, but the mere sound of his voice had already accomplished all he needed to do. Any remembrance of Rex would be incomplete without mentioning his passion for tales of gunfighters and outlaws of the 1800’s. He gave me a detailed, handannotated map of the last ride of the James-Younger gang after they were routed in Northfield in 1876. And he incorporated that legend into one of his radio poems: Now there’s eight of us work at R and R Tire, There was eight men in Jesse’s gang. We understand the lay of the land, Hopin’ not to go off with a bang. Doin’ business in Mankato Is a lot like the Northfield battle If you underestimate the local folks They’ll blow you out of the saddle.” Rex Macbeth left us all too early, 12 years ago at just 71. But he still has plenty to teach us. In that 1988 Free Press article, Rex told Ojanpa, in his typical plain spoken way, “You wonder how people will remember you after you croak.” I could give a long answer, but poets prefer concision. So I’ll use five words: Very fondly, with a smile. •••• In that same 30-year-old edition of the Free Press, former reporter Greg Abbott wrote about the pending demise of the old Schmidt House. The imposing threestory mansion on Park Lane, with its grand Greek columns and porticos and curved veranda and open second-floor balcony, had been built between 1923-25. Sixty-three years later, it was slated to meet the wrecking ball. The owners had sold it to the YMCA in 1958 for office space, as the Y moved out of its old building at Second and Cherry (now a parking lot). By 1988, the Y needed to modernize its facilities again, and I presume it was just too expensive to try to move the massive brick structure. Longtime readers of this column know I used to regularly feature “places that are no more.” Like many, I wonder why other countries are so careful to preserve their heritage, while Americans are cavalier about ours. Only a decade after the devastation of “Urban Renewal” had left much of downtown as a shadow of its former self, the Schmidt House – whose demolition was temporarily stalled because of its listing on the National Historic Register – was finally torn down. You can view Marian Anderson’s beautiful painting of it at the Blue Earth County Historical Society. Peter Steiner is host of “Talk of the Town” weekdays at 1:05 p.m. on KTOE.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2018 • 69
READING SERIES Fall 2018
September 13
Ladan Osman
2018–2019 Spring 2019
February 7
poet & essayist
Jordan Deveraux poet and 2018 Robert C. Wright Award winner
October 11
Nick White novelist
March 12–15
Eddice B. Barber Creative Nonfiction Writer and Poet
Layli Long Soldier
November 8
Danez Smith
poet
poet
April 10-11
Spring 2019
Nadine B. Andreas Visiting Writer Residency
February 7
Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer Residency
Sequoia Nagamatsu short story writer
Lidia Yuknavitch memoirist & novelist
Lorna Pecard poet and 2018-19 Andreas Graduate Assistant
For more information on the Good Thunder Reading Series visit our website: gt.mnsu.edu All Good Thunder Reading Series events are free and open to the public. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. The 2018-19 Good Thunder Reading Series also receives support from the Minnesota State University, Mankato Department of English, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Women’s Center, the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment, and individual donors. The Twin Rivers Council of the Arts,
First Congressional UCC, and Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Minnesota State offer additional assistance. Minnesota State University, Mankato is a member of the Minnesota State system and an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity University. Individuals with a disability who need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event, please contact Candace Black at 507-389-2680 (V), 800-627-3529 or 711 (MRS/TTY) at least three working days prior to the event. This document is available in alternative format to individuals with disabilities by calling the above numbers. ENG38MS 07-18
70 • AUGUST 2018 • MANKATO MAGAZINE